1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to head gear, specifically to soft-fabric head gear such as knitted caps of the "stocking cap" variety, and more specifically to include an elongate tail that may function as a scarf for wrapping around the neck or as a ski mask to cover the lower face.
2. Background Information
Particularly in regions having cold, inclement weather, it has long been customary to provide head gear that will protect most of the head, but often excluding the face and neck, from such weather. Further, it is customary separately to provide scarves or similar implements of clothing to protect the neck, or a ski mask to protect the face, from such inclement weather. Some effort has likewise been made to provide weather protection for both the head and neck in a single implement of clothing.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 1,040,461 issued Oct. 8, 1912 to Thorpe describes an implement of clothing that may serve both as a cap and a hood. At the lower end of a crocheted or knitted cap there is included a first band having elongate extensions that may be buttoned together when such band is extended downward to encircle the neck in the manner of a scarf. The front peak of the cap includes a second band that may be buttoned backward onto the body of the cap when that first band is used as a scarf as just indicated, or those first and second bands may be buttoned together so that the implement of clothing in such case acts as a cap.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,503,537 issued Aug. 5, 1924 to Knopfler describes a soft cap having flaps on opposite sides thereof that may be folded upwardly and buttoned together near the cap crown so as to serve as a cap; folded backwardly and buttoned together to serve as a cap having a protective extension over the back of the neck; or folded frontwardly to serve as a cap having a frontward extension encircling the neck in the manner of a scarf.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,512,128 issued Oct. 21, 1924 to O'Brien describes another soft cap having at the back and sides thereof a combination of a muffler member and a pair of opposite ear flaps. The muffler/ear flap combination may be folded down and attached beneath the chin and against the front of the neck to cover the ears, the back of the head and the neck, or the ear flaps may be folded down separately and connected, so as to leave the neck uncovered.
Similar to the O'Brien patent, U.S. Pat. No. 1,532,750 issued Apr. 7, 1925 to Joha describes head gear that likewise has ear flaps and a piece adapted to encircle the back of the neck. The ear flaps in this case include button holes that attach to buttons located on either side of the crown. U.S. Pat. No. 1,618,222 issued Feb. 22, 1927 to Phillips et al. is similarly constructed.
The traditional "stocking cap" is also a well-known item of head gear. For such purposes as skiing and the like, the "tail" of the stocking cap acts to provide a certain "flair" to the endeavor, and (fortuitously) to provide a wrap around the neck for purposes of warmth and protection. To applicant's knowledge, however, there has been no effort to develop a stocking cap in which the tail thereof is specifically adapted in size and configuration to be useable as a scarf or muffler around the neck, and in particular to be adapted for fastening in such a configuration by convenient means that will yet preserve the aesthetic purpose of the head gear. Further, applicant is unaware of any head gear that also provides intrinsic means for using a tail thereof alternatively as a ski mask.
More specifically, a common feature in the head gear indicated in the prior art above is that each type of head gear is constructed so as to lack cylindrical symmetry, which thereby renders that head gear difficult to use for more than the single purpose for which it was designed. Even in caps that have loosely been termed "stocking caps" there does not exist a structure comparable to an actual long stocking, in that the "tail" (or "lower leg," in the case of an actual stocking) will have a structure that is not cylindrically symmetrical. It would be of great advantage, therefore, to provide a head gear that indeed exhibits cylindrical symmetry and, depending upon the severity of the weather in a particular instance, could thus be used initially as a basic stocking cap, as a cap-and-scarf combination in more inclement weather, and as a cap-and-ski-mask apparatus in the most inclement weather.